East Germany Table of Contents
The founders of the LDPD considered the tradition of German liberalism as the legacy of their party. In general, the LDPD adhered to a policy of private ownership and individual initiative. Upon its establishment in 1945, its leaders announced that "the liberal creed and democratic political conviction" would form its political ideology, but by 1948 the SED had subjected the LDPD, like the CDU, to pressures to conform to the official communist party line. By the early 1950s, the LDPD had completely reversed its opposition to socialism and, in effect, had become an auxiliary of the SED. Since 1967 the LDPD has been chaired by Manfred Gerlach, who, like the CDU's Goetting, has been a deputy in the People's Chamber, a member of the Presidium of the National Front since 1950, and a deputy chairman of the Council of State since September 1960.
Data as of July 1987